On 24 Jan 2005, after 4 dreams of the Holy Theotokos (with the last one telling me "I want to go to the right side (of the house)", the Blessed ever Virgin Mother of God appeared on my son's window blessing our new home with an icon of our Lord and Saviour. You can make out the Lord's image on the icon very clearly on the original photo. Photos and series of events that led to this are here: http://www.mother-of-jesus.org

She is always watching us and protecting over us. And ALWAYS hear's our prayers. Pray constantly to our Holy Mother for her intercessions to the Lord.

Sorry. I don't buy any of this. The Blessed Theotokos does NOT make such Latinist appearances and I cannot help but reject this sort of private "now appearing at a bedroom near you" appearance which then, somehow strangely, links to a fundamentalist, Four-Spiritual-Laws' website for a good, ole Protestant presentation of the Gospel (aka: Campus Crusade style).

Hey... Lazarus... I'm not arguing. I'm telling you point-blank. I do NOT believe a solitary word of this. If what you say is true, the Church would have endorsed it. Please... share with us your bishop's name so that we can verify these things. In addition, why are you linking us to a fundamentalist Protestant website for this Jesus film? What possible connection can Orthodoxy have with Campus Crusade-style (4 Spiritual Laws) views of the Gospel?

I'm betting you dollars to donuts that you do NOT have your priest's nor your bishop's endorsement for this so-called apparition. Correct?

What a once in a life time event. Please make sure you have a sellers account on e-bay and sell something. Blessings like this are hard to come by.

ROFL... yeah... I had this fried egg sandwich that I was sure was... but... I digress. Silouan has given you some pretty good advice. Try e-bay. I wish I had before hunger overcame me and my fortune disappeared down the old esophagus. RATS!

There is a good reason that many Church Fathers advise you to disregard visions and dreams... . .

Edited so as not to offend, as Bogo suggested below it is wrong to go too far...

Lazarus, as to the question asked in this thread about Satan using a cross for his own purposes, surely you know that Satan can transform himself into the appearance of even an angel of light? Satan can use just about anything to his advantage; the cross made by Christians only repel him because we do so in faith. But without faith, the cross is a meaingless symbol.

« Last Edit: October 08, 2005, 11:47:49 PM by Asteriktos »

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"Christian America is finally waking up to what fraternities and biker gangs have known for years: hazing works!"

Hey now...let's relax a bit. This image could have really appeared in Lazarus' window, and he may sincerely believe that it is a visitation of Mary. If that's his sincere belief (whether it's true or not), then he shouldn't be attacked here as being a liar.

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"When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist". - Archbishop Hélder Pessoa Câmara

Last year I was visiting a famous ancient monastery in Egypt, and I had the privilege of meeting a Monk who is a well-known “souah” (arabic) - I’m not quite sure how to translate it accurately into English (“hermit” possibly?), but it denotes a Holy Solitary who often “flies by the spirit”. We asked him what his thoughts were concerning visions, apparitions or dreams that are often allegedly received by believers, even if they be Orthodox. He answered by giving us a statistic (not to be taken literally - only given for the sake of emphasis) pertaining to how many of these alleged visions, apparitions or dreams are, how shall we say, NOT from God: 99.99% (the other 0.01% being at least subject to the discretion of the local Bishop, and not one’s own personal conscious.)

He also advised us that if one were to ever encounter such a phenomenon, then one is to always prima facie presume that such is not from God; for even if such is from God, our caution will be rewarded rather than held against us, and God will certainly make His ways inevitably known to us in the end.

Regarding the case of our new member Lazarus here, it certainly seems highly suspicious, and I for one do not buy it; however, as Bogoliubtsy has pointed out, Lazarus may simply be innocently “duped”, and not necessarily acting with deceptive or malicious intent.

Lazarus, are you Orthodox?

Peace.

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No longer an active member of this forum. Sincerest apologies to anyone who has taken offence to anything posted in youthful ignorance or negligence prior to my leaving this forum - October, 2012.

"Philosophy is the imitation by a man of what is better, according to what is possible" - St Severus

Hey now...let's relax a bit. This image could have really appeared in Lazarus' window, and he may sincerely believe that it is a visitation of Mary. If that's his sincere belief (whether it's true or not), then he shouldn't be attacked here as being a liar.

Whoaaa... no one is attacking him nor is anyone claiming he is a liar. That is your interpretation (and a wrong one at that) of the criticisms of this obviously bogus apparition. The Blessed Virgin does NOT make private appearances. Were this a legitimate appearance it would have been recognized as such by the Church, given the fact that this was to have happened several months ago. Secondly, I asked for the name of the bishop and/or priest and received nothing but silence. It's obvious, at least to me, that the silence indicates the so-called apparition (a very, very poor choice of words, btw) was never authenticated by any clergy and thus cannot be trusted. Whether or not it's his sincere belief is irrelevant. He is sincerely wrong... period.

I also asked why there were links to a fundamentalist Protestant website and why the Four Spiritual Laws, which is a Campus Crusade for Christ, brochure was being presented on that site. As with the bishop's name, no answer was forthcoming.

While I'm not prepared to say these visions are Satanic, I definitely stand by my original statement that they're NOT the Blessed Theotokos his claims notwithstanding.

Oh don't be so silly. Do you expect that we simply accept everything that is presented here without question in order that another's sensibilities aren't dampened in any way? Please... be reasonable. We are to question these things... THAT is commanded of us. I asked for proof that these things had been presented to the bishop and priest and all I received was silence. That is proof enough that this is little more than a hoax. Do you have children? I'm sure that there are times your love for them causes you to correct them... and they may not be appreciative of it at the time. It seems to me that this is a similar case. I will agree that we probably carried it too far... but surely you will agree that this entire thread is not to be taken seriously. Does not the Spirit witness to you that something here is dreadfully wrong?

For my own part, I apologize for an earlier post which was flippant. But I certainly do not retract anything relating to my belief that the OP is either seriously deluded or is presenting a hoax either intentionally or otherwise.

Well, I must admit that along with aserb I thought it looked like condensation on the window too.

And I agree with Stamford that we are to challenge and correct if we think something to be false.

But we are to do so with humility and respect, speaking the truth IN LOVE.

Also note that alot of the story had to do with prayer and repentance over the individual's part in a family rift and in a spirit of reconciliation, taking the blame for the rift and repairing it. Those are things we may all say 'amen' to.

I never got the impression that the orinal post was from a "baiter" or hoaxter.

Well, I must admit that along with aserb I thought it looked like condensation on the window too.

And I agree with Stamford that we are to challenge and correct if we think something to be false.

But we are to do so with humility and respect, speaking the truth IN LOVE.

Also note that alot of the story had to do with prayer and repentance over the individual's part in a family rift and in a spirit of reconciliation, taking the blame for the rift and repairing it. Those are things we may all say 'amen' to.

I never got the impression that the orinal post was from a "baiter" or hoaxter.

Completely agree on all points.

Don't you find it curiously interesting that he has remained silent since his post? There's been no attempt to either defend his claims nor to provide anymore evidence as to their veracity.

The idea that "anything that enhances one's faith is OK with me" is a bit ridiculous... particularly for an Orthodox Christian to say. I know so-called Orthodox Christians who are "into" the occult and claim it "builds up their faith." Is this okay with you? You must remember that light has no fellowship with darkness and we have to demarcate between truth and untruth. And these claims of apparitions on one's bedroom wall (that evidentally has no approval from any priest or bishop) are highly suspect. Because someone claims something does not mean it is true nor that we have to accept it at face value. I'm surprised we're so concerned with offending someone sensibilities that we're willing to say it is "okay" with us... not you, Brother Aiden... the previous poster.

Anyway... enough. It's obvious the OP had no intentions of being questioned this closely and has apparently abandonned us.

Why not? I've done that before on Protestant boards where I had once been a regular but had stopped regularly posting at. I mean, sometimes you come across something you'd like to share, but that doesn't mean you want to sit around and argue about dozens of objections for weeks on end. Not everyone gets joy out of sitting in front of the computer for four hours at a time trying to respond to questions you've been asked 15 times before (if you google it, you'll see that he's posted this at other message boards). Or maybe he was just let down by the response, as he expected something different, and decided not to come back. I'll be honest, if I had posted something like that believing it to be true, and had gotten the response that he did here (including the sarcastic post by Asteriktos) then I wouldn't come back either.

« Last Edit: October 11, 2005, 09:29:45 PM by Asteriktos »

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"Christian America is finally waking up to what fraternities and biker gangs have known for years: hazing works!"

With no disrespect to the original poster, the rest of this thread is starting to sound like a Monte Python skit (my posts included!)

My name is Arthur, King of the Britons

King of the 'oo?

King of the Britons

Who are the Britons?

Why you, me, we're all BritonsÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š and I am your king

Well I didn't vote for you

You don't vote for kings

Well how do you become one then?

The Lady of the Lake, her arms clad in robes of the finest silk, rose from the bosom of the pond and brandishing upon high the swordÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š ex caliburÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š proclaiming, me, Arthur King of the Britons

Strange women lying around in ponds is no basis for aÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€š system of government; if I were to go around saying I was king 'cause some watery tart waived a cimitaur at me, why they'e lock me up...

Seriously I mean this observation in no unkind way to the OP, but our following "discussion" reminds me of this...with some of the strident posts sounding like the English peasant and the rest of us sounding "piously" like Arthur!

Umm, I am a skeptic especially when it comes to sitings, apparitions, etc. of anyone or anything. I apply Occam's razor to most cases. NOw, I have also seen the miraculous, healings, otherworldly things not of God, etc. but I cannot explain them, nor do I address them publicly(except right now!LOL) but my point is simple:

If it looks, tastes and feels like condensation, it probably is. If its a dream telling you things, what is the message and how big is the message supposed to be exposed? Go to yopur Priest and ask, show and receive what he says about the matter. Others have stated this, so I do as well.

I had this old, mildew-rotted shower curtain I had in college that had this bright image of the older, fatter, 70's Elvis! Now that is worth putting on a website to show! LOL